Policing matters are expected to form a crucial part ofnegotiations between the British and Irish governments andNorthern Ireland's political parties in Scotland nextmonth.

Earlier, DUP leader Ian Paisley has said that any agreementreached on the restoration of the Stormont Assembly by theNovember deadline should be put to the people of NorthernIreland in an election.

Mr Paisley was speaking at his first visit to a BritishLabour Party annual conference, which is being held inManchester.

Sitting in the conference hall alongside Labour delegates,Mr Paisley heard the Northern Ireland Secretary, PeterHain, say the people of Northern Ireland were sick andtired of having their very own political groundhog day andit was time it came to an end.

But the DUP leader said he would not be bullied intoagreement by the deadline.

Plans to reduce the number of police command units couldundermine key reforms of the Patten Report, the OversightCommissioner has warned.

The police have 29 district command units across NorthernIreland - but by next year there will be just eight.

The number is being cut in response to the reform of localgovernment, which will see the number of local councilsdrastically reduced.

However, Al Hutchinson said this could affect intelligence-gathering.

The police oversight commissioner said the re-organisationof policing must not reverse the devolution and delegationof decision-making to local commanders.

The proposed new super-district commands need to be verycarefully considered.

Alex Attwood

SDLP

"While there is no denying the advantages offered bymerging district council areas for the sake of bothgovernance and policing efficiency, adapting to the Reviewof Public Administration has the potential to at leasttemporarily disrupt local police and communityrelationships," he said.

"This was about getting policing down to the local policinglevel.

"We have local beat and community policing teams and policein sector areas patrolling a local area working with thecommunities.

"There is also an inherent risk to the decision-makingauthority of the leadership of neighbourhood policingteams, as DCU commanders grow geographically more distantfrom their neighbourhoods and their local policingpartners."

In his 17th report on the implementation of the Pattenreforms, Mr Hutchinson said the proposed devolution ofpolicing and justice to the assembly would be a stepforward, but warned of the consequences of politicalfailure.

"As long as collective politics continue to fail policingin Northern Ireland, and society fails to give its supportto policing, the success of further policing reforms willbe impeded," he said.

SDLP policing spokesman Alex Attwood said the proposed new"super-district commands" needed to be very carefullyconsidered.

"It is imperative that any adjustments to the Pattenstructures of policing jump all the other Patten hurdlesaround community policing, local accountability for policeconduct and performance and increasing the numbers ofpolice officers on the beat in local neighbourhoods," hesaid.

Bertie Ahern's future as Taoiseach is in doubt followingthe ultimatum from Progressive Democrats leader andTánaiste Michael McDowell that he must fully explain the1994 £8,000 Manchester payment to him by businessmen.

If Mr Ahern does not come up with a satisfactory responsein the Dáil on Tuesday - or before - the life of the FiannaFáil/Progressive Democrats Government will be seriouslyunder threat.

The Taoiseach, it is understood, revealed the existence ofthe Manchester money because he believed The Irish Timeshad information about it but was unable to publish thedetails.

Today, Irish Times editor Geraldine Kennedy and PublicAffairs Correspondent Colm Keena will appear before apublic hearing of the Mahon tribunal to answer questions onthis newspaper's report of the payments received by MrAhern.

If the crisis worsens, Mr Ahern, who yesterday became thelongest-serving Taoiseach since Eamon de Valera, may facepressure to quit as Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil.

Meanwhile, some in the Progressive Democrats now privatelyfear the crisis has gone too far and that Mr McDowell maybe forced to quit as Tánaiste and take the party out ofoffice.

Last night, Mr Ahern's spokeswoman said he had "been fullyopen" in the Dáil about the Manchester event and he had "noproblem" about answering further questions in the Dáil onTuesday. The fact that Mr Ahern's explanation will not takeplace until then, though, offers him time to provide asolution acceptable to Mr McDowell that could defuse thecrisis.

However, there is a danger that the hurdle set by MrMcDowell could leave Mr Ahern facing a Dáil humiliationthat would destroy his political credibility, inside andoutside Fianna Fáil.

The crisis dominated a meeting of last night's PD nationalexecutive in the party's headquarters in South FrederickStreet, near Dáil Éireann, attended by Mr McDowell.

His decision to raise the political stakes yesterdayafternoon followed his unhappiness after reading atranscript of an interview Mr Ahern gave in Cavan beforenoon.

Strongly defending his conduct, Mr Ahern said he paid hisown travel to Manchester, attended the event in "a privatecapacity" and not as minister for finance, and had notasked for the money.

The money was given to him after he attended a dinner with25 still unidentified businessmen and briefed them on thechanges then happening in the Irish economy.

Mr Ahern and Mr McDowell spoke by telephone in the earlyafternoon, but before Mr McDowell had read the transcriptof the interview, which he had missed because he wasspeaking in the Seanad.

Clearly concerned, Mr McDowell said at 4pm: "I have to saythat there are very significant matters of concern whichare not completely put at rest by the facts now in thepublic domain."

The Taoiseach must identify all the donors involved,explain what the money was for, and whether it was acceptedas a political, or personal donation, the PD leader said.

Though concern mounted last night, senior Fianna FáilMinisters clung to the hope that Mr Ahern can handle thecrisis.

Asked if the Government's future was under threat, MrMcDowell said he did not "want to put it in those terms atall", but "accountability and credibility" had to besustained.

Sharply critical of Mr Ahern, Fine Gael leader Enda Kennysaid he had never heard of a serving minister acceptingfees for speaking at an event, either in public or private,in his 30 years in the Dáil.

"I tell you one thing, my standard would be very different.Were I in receipt of that payment for a speaking engagementI would be gone by now because the Fine Gael party wouldnot stand for it," he said.

Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte said Mr Ahern could not"pretend that meetings like that are in a private capacity.It is a breach of the ministerial code of conduct".

The Dáil is to hold a special debate next Tuesday on thecontroversy surrounding payments to the Taoiseach in 1993and 1994.The Government agreed to the debate following rowdy scenesin the Dáil this morning as opposition leaders criticisedTánaiste Michael McDowell over his stance on thecontroversy.

The Progressive Democrats leader said yesterday that hebelieved Mr Ahern's decision to accept £39,000 from wealthybusinessmen and friends was "ill-advised" and an "error ofjudgement".

However, he also said he accepted that the Taoiseach'sactions were "neither dishonest nor corrupt".

Speaking in the Dáil this morning, Fine Gael leader EndaKenny said Mr McDowell was proposing amendments to ethicslegislation that would ensure government ministers couldnot receive interest-free loans.

However, he said the minister now seemed to be taking itupon himself to decide whether such payments are right orwrong.

"Your determination of the Taoiseach's action as being anhonest error of judgement is simply incredible in yourcapacity as Minister for Justice and as Tánaiste," he said.

Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte, meanwhile, said itappeared the PDs were only defending Mr Ahern in order tokeep the current government in power.

However, Mr McDowell defended his actions and said the PDswere elected to power and would be discharging that mandate"so that the Irish people get the kind of government theyneed and deserve".

The crisis facing Bertie Ahern's leadership deepeneddramatically last night following the demand by theTánaiste, Michael McDowell, that the Taoiseach shouldanswer fundamental questions about the circumstancessurrounding the payment of £8,000 sterling to him inManchester in 1994 and provide a full list of the donorsinvolved.

The intervention of the Progressive Democrats leader, aftera day of steadily escalating pressure on the Government,has elevated the political crisis facing the Taoiseach to anew level and raised serious questions about his ability tosurvive in office.

The previous two Fianna Fáil taoisigh, Albert Reynolds andCharles Haughey, were forced from office by their coalitionpartners, the PDs in 1992 and Labour in 1994, and Mr Ahernis now facing the same fate unless he can come up with amuch more detailed and coherent explanation of theManchester donation than he has done to date.

After initially giving the Taoiseach qualified support onWednesday night, following his explanation of the €50,000in payments from friends in Dublin, the Tánaiste raised thestakes considerably with his insistence that fundamentalquestions remained over the Manchester payment and hisdemand for a full list of those who had contributed themoney.

The Opposition leaders also ratcheted up the pressure bycalling Mr Ahern's continued leadership of the country intoquestion for the first time. Fine Gael leader Enda Kennymaintained that his party would have forced him to resignby now if he had the same questions to answer as theTaoiseach. Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said that the issuesnow at the centre of the affair had raised the most seriousquestions faced by any taoiseach since the Haughey era.

After their initial caution last week about being toocritical of the Taoiseach, in the light of the sensitivebackground of his marital separation, the Opposition hadcome to the conclusion yesterday afternoon that he was sobadly wounded by his handling of the affair that they couldsafely attack him with no holds barred.

The harder tone adopted by the Tánaiste and the two mainOpposition leaders arose directly from the manner in whichthe Taoiseach stumbled through a "doorstep" interview withjournalists in Co Cavan at lunchtime yesterday. His thirdattempt to explain the circumstances surrounding hisacceptance of the £8,000 payment from Manchesterbusinessmen when he was minister for finance in 1994 simplymade matters much worse.

Mr Ahern's refusal to accept that it was inappropriate fora Minister to accept a gift of such proportions from agroup of foreign businessmen, his insistence that he hadbroken no tax law or code of guidelines for Ministers, andhis refusal to name the donors, all set alarm bells ringingin Leinster House.

The place was already agog with apparent confusion overwhether there would be a further Dáil debate next week.

Michael McDowell was taking his first Order of Business asTánaiste and he initially withstood a barrage from theOpposition demanding a Dáil debate next week about theTaoiseach's problems. In the face of continuing pressurefrom Enda Kenny and Pat Rabbitte, the Government ChiefWhip, Tom Kitt, suggested that all the party whips couldmeet to arrange something. This proposition was seized onby Mr Rabbitte and endorsed by the Tánaiste, to the clearchagrin of some Fianna Fáil Ministers.

The meeting of whips was twice postponed and eventually MrKitt offered 35 minutes for statements on Tuesday. TheOpposition accused the Government of retreating from whathad been offered earlier, but in fact it was more than theyhad expected at the start of the day's business. It meantthat the Taoiseach's problems would again dominate nextweek's Dáil business.

Then came news of Mr Ahern's Cavan interview and hisattempts to explain how he could speak to a group ofbusinessmen in Manchester about the Irish economy when hewas minister for finance and yet somehow not be there in anofficial capacity.

"I did the dinner a number of times . . . often go along,you know, to speak about what's going on in Ireland, what'shappening . . . was it official? No, it was not an officialdinner. I had no official script, my costs in Manchester Ipaid myself as I always do," he said.

"So, no official script, not an official function, not inmy capacity as minister, paid my own way, spoke at thefunction, and on one occasion the assembled group of about25, plus the group who were with me from Ireland, gave methe sum of money that I mentioned. That's all thathappened."

Following his claims that the €50,000 he got from businessfriends in Dublin was a loan and not a gift, even though hehad not paid any of it back in 13 years, the claim that themoney he got in Manchester was actually a gift, but was notgiven to him in his capacity as minister, further erodedthe Taoiseach's credibility.

That, in turn, prompted the Tánaiste to suggest there were"very significant matters of concern" which must still beclarified in relation to the payment. Ominously, MrMcDowell added he had spoken to the Taoiseach about thematter, and had read a transcript of the Cavan interview,but his concerns had not been put to rest.

Whether those concerns can be put to rest in the comingdays will determine if the Government can survive, at leastin its present form. If the Taoiseach cannot assuage theTánaiste's concerns, some scenarios would emerge. The PDscould pull out of Government and Mr Ahern could continue onwith the support of Independents; Mr Ahern could step down,and be replaced by a new leader who could continue inoffice with the PDs; or there could be an early generalelection.

Mr Ahern has the next few days until the Dáil resumes onTuesday to ensure that none of those things happens, buthis prospects of doing so now hang in the balance.